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Foreign student treatment under scrutiny in India

Matt Wade

Australia's treatment of foreign students is under scrutiny in India today as a top-level delegation meets Indian officials, parents and students in the capital New Delhi to assure them Australia is a safe place to study.

The delegation is part of the Australian Government's effort to limit damage to the country's lucrative education industry following a string of attacks on Indian students, mostly in Melbourne and Sydney.

The group's leader, Colin Walters from the Commonwealth Department of Education, said the delegation will visit eight Indian cities to explain what actions are being taken to promote the well-being of Indian students in Australia and listen to their suggestions.

"We will make it clear that racism is not going to be tolerated by the Australian Government," he said.

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About 95,000 Indians are studying in Australia and the Indian Government has called on Australia to do more to ensure their safety in the wake of recent assaults.

Mr Walters said it was "too early to tell" how the controversy over the attacks on Indian students would affect student enrolments.

The nine-member delegation, drawn from state and federal governments, police and the tertiary sector, is meeting with senior government figures including the Chief Minister of Delhi, Sheila Dikshit.

It will also face a media conference later today. The attacks have triggered a media frenzy in India and the delegation is likely to face aggressive questioning.

Victorian Assistant Police Commissioner Paul Evans said extra uniformed and covert patrols were already having an impact in affected areas on the outskirts of Melbourne.

"We have already seen a significant turnaround in some of the figures," he said.

He said undercover police working on targeted areas, including transport hubs, had yielded valuable intelligence that had contributed to a drop in robberies and assaults.

Victoria has the largest education industry in Australia and many of the attacks have taken place in Melbourne.

Four of the nine-person delegation are from the state including Mr Evans, Government representative David Hanna, RMIT's Director of International Services Michelle Hoodbhoy and Tony Zalewski, who heads the Australian Institute of Public Safety and is a member of the Victorian committee of the Australian Council for Private Education and Training.

The delegation also includes Tulip Chaudhary from the International Group of the Department of Education, Employment and Workplace Relations, Marie Louise-Smith from the Department of Immigration and Citizenship, Mark Howland, Director, International Students, NSW Department of Education and Training, and Professor Arun Sharma, Deputy Vice-Chancellor (Research and Commercialisation), Queensland University of Technology.